Olio 12/9/15

Though still coughing some and still having some sinus discomfort, I think I am finally on the mend from the virus caught from the grands. My energy is back, fortunately, as there have been gifts to wrap, salves and lotion bars to make, wooden boxes to stain.

Each day, the postal service, UPS, and or FedEx drive down our long gravel road and drop off boxes and envelopes of goods ordered online, by us or by daughter and SIL. Some of these goods are gifts, some supplies for this weekend’s Holiday Market and the etsy shop.

These packages have required attention and some have made more work. There are still a few expected items that will have to be wrapped and later put under the tree. One of the packages was a new shipment of tins and bottles needed to finish getting items ready for the Holiday Market. After waiting so long for the prior shipment, I changed suppliers and they got the items to me in only 4 business days. One of the items purchased from them was a package of shrink bands to make the tins of salves, lotion bars, and balms tamper resistant.

A few days ago, I purchased three more of the boxes that I am making into the Body and Beard Kits. These boxes are purchased unfinished and it take a couple of days to finish with stain and urethane.

Today, I made more Moustache Waxes and Comfrey Salves. I sat at the table and burned my hand more than once learning to secure the shrink bands on all of the tins, but all are done and I feel better about presenting them in the public without having to worry about one being opened and handled then not purchased. There will be testers of most of the salves and lotion bars that are available. Tonight, the last 3 Bath and Beard Kits were assembled and boxed up for this weekend.

The weather this weekend is looking stellar and for that I am glad. It will hopefully bring out more people and I won’t freeze standing outdoors for 6 hours.

On the farm front, my chickens seem to be on strike. I haven’t gotten an egg in a week. When I decided to raise chickens, I selected Buff Orpingtons as they lay year round and are a dual purpose bird. The plan has been for some of the chicks from last spring to replace some of the hens, so that we would not have a flock that all molted at once. That plan didn’t work out with all but 1 of the spring chicks being taken by predators or the neighbor’s dog. The 1 is our young rooster and he still hasn’t even developed his crow. The 2 Americauna’s though young, don’t lay in the winter. All 7 mature Buffy hens are molting. Once done, egg production will resume and the chooks will all have pretty plumage again.

Since finishing my Coopsworth spinning project, I haven’t been spinning or knitting. My Coopsworth ended up being more than 950 yards of yarn. Not quite as much as I had hoped, but there are a couple of sweater ideas in the works. But I have gone through a couple of books. The Midwife’s Revolt by Jodi Daynard was a very good Revolutionary War Historical Novel. I recommend it if you like historical novels.